Harriet (last name unknown) was 15 and
living in a fishing village west of Halifax when she saw her first UFO.
Years later, when she was married, she and her husband Ray awoke in the
night to discover their room was full of fog, or "mist" as Ray
defined it.

Neither Harriet nor her mother remember
how or when the scar appeared on Harriet's back, but the size and mark
is consistent with other scars documented in alien abduction cases all
over North America.

According to a new book, Maritime UFO
Files by Don Leger more than 225,000 Atlantic Canadians have seen what
they consider to be an unidentified flying object - known as UFOs.

On top of that, some 54 per cent of Canadians
who participated in a poll carried out by Manitoba Astronomer Chris Rutowski
believe that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and some
35 per cent of those polled believe that intelligent life is visiting us
now.

Mr. Leger lives in Bedford, N.S. A former
pilot and now a civil servant, he has been researching UFO phenomena for
six years. He has culled his information from a vast and shadowy nest of
military and RCMP documents. Mr. Leger's book begins its catalogue of UFO
sightings and alien abductions in the 1950s. From here he chronicles decades
of first-hand accounts made by scientists, ordinary citizens, pilots and
RCMP officers.

There is a commonality of experience
in most of the accounts. Bright lights hover in the sky. Time lapses and
the people who have seen or felt the presence of UFOs are confused and
cannot understand how the hour has leapt ahead or what happened during
that time.

One experience is particularly common:
UFOs don't like cars. There have been several reports of UFOs chasing vehicles,
frightening drivers into cross-country high-speed chases. Drivers report
that they found themselves careening along country roads at 125 kilometres
per hour in vain efforts to outrun gleaming orbs, or saucers in the sky.

In October of 1976, Joseph Robichaud,
26 years old at the time, filed a report to the RCMP Constable J.A. St.
Pierre in Richibucto.

"When I arrived at the site he was
waiting there for me. There was no smell of liquor on his breath and his
eyes were clear and normal. He did not seem to be under the influence of
any kind of drug. He was, however, very pale and nervous, and appeared
to be quite frightened. There were no clouds, there were quite a few stars
in the sky, and the temperature was quite cool."

Mr. Robichaud told Joseph Robichaud that
when he drove down Highway 480 in Kent County at approximately 3 a.m.,
he noticed a red, glowing object in the sky approximately 6 to 8 kilometres
south of him.

He turned off the lights and engine of
his car to get a better look at this stationary object, which was when
the UFO started to move slowly up and down in the sky then headed north
toward Mr. Robichaud.

At this point, Mr. Robichaud panicked,
turned his car back on and headed east with the UFO in hot pursuit. The
red glowing disc caught up to him very quickly despite the fact that Mr.
Robichaud was reported to be travelling at speeds of 185 km/hr on the treacherous
Highway 480. Eventually, with the UFO hovering above him, Mr. Robichaud
arrived at a small group of houses. He slammed on the brakes, and ran from
the car to take refuge. The UFO, he reported "stopped at about 91
metres from him and hovered silently over the pavement about 6 metres in
the air.... The UFO was about the size of a house, and was red in colour
similar to burning coals in a fire... Finally it took off into the night
sky."

Mr. Leger believes that Mr. Robichaud's
story has credence given that he was up-front with the RCMP about the speeds
he was travelling in the night. Furthermore, he showed no signs of drinking
or narcotic abuse and appeared genuinely frightened by his experience.

Throughout the 1970s, reports of UFO
sightings appeared never-ending.

*In 1970 a precision radar painted a
large object at CFB Shearwater, at an estimated altitude of 2,500 feet.

*For more than one week in New Brunswick
and Nova Scotia a UFO was sighted by a number of individuals from Colpitts
Settlement to Moncton, to Sackville to Falmouth, N.S. The UFO, Mr. Leger
writes was reported to be "oval shaped, similar to a bathtub, and
it had two reddish coloured lights shining downward."

*In 1977, Rosemary Anger of Bedeque PEI,
called the Summerside detachment of the RCMP to report that she and her
two daughters had observed a UFO which passed over her car at a height
of approximately 15 metres.

*In December 1979, two different families
- the Bartons of Segmour Point, outside Saint John and the Schwartzes who
lived to the northwest of Fredericton - reported that they saw a flame-coloured
UFO break up and fall over the Kennebecasis River on December 23 (according
to the Bartons) and on December 24, near Fredericton (according to the
Schwartzes).

The list of sightings tapers off in the
1980s and 1990s. In 1994, writes Mr. Leger, the RCMP stopped reporting
public sightings, deeming that they "should be kept confidential to
protect the identity of the witness."

Despite the high number of UFO sightings
in Atlantic Canada, most go unreported, writes Mr. Leger. Which explains
why from 1947 to 1988 only about 300 Maritime cases are on file with the
National Research Council in Ottawa.

Most people, says Mr. Leger, will not
report what they have seen for fear of ridicule within their community.
Nevertheless, of the cases he has researched and the witnesses he has interviewed,
each case has led to five others and Mr. Leger writes that he is concerned
about how pervasive the sighting appear to be and how deeply they affect
individual families.

Mr. Leger has no conclusions at the end
of his research, except that it is unfortunate that people do not have
a forum to seek explanations for what they have seen. In the end, he concludes
that there is more to the issue of UFO sightings - particularly in Atlantic
Canada - then we have ever realized. Till we do come to some conclusion
or resolution, the M-Files will continue to amaze and frighten the people
who see UFOs in the night-time skies.